1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technology for controlling an image processing on image data obtained by reading an image of an original.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is difficult to manufacture an image forming apparatus (image processing apparatus) such as a multifunction product (MFP) with high processing speed at low cost and with less development effort, because the processing speed, the cost, and the development effort have a trade-off relationship.
For example, the image forming apparatus can be manufactured at low cost by combining a scanner function, an image processing function, and an output function; however, such image forming apparatus requires a large-scale processing unit, which causes a significant development effort. If a scanner device, a plotter device, and the like are individually connected on a network, the image forming apparatus can be built with less development effort; however, a data transmission speed between the devices is decreased, which results in a lower processing speed of the image forming apparatus. Similarly, to provide an image forming apparatus with high processing speed, the image forming apparatus needs to have the scanning function, the image processing function, and the output function in a combined manner, which causes a significant development effort as described above.
In recent years, there has been a requirement for a product lineup of the same model series in which a plurality of types of image forming apparatuses including a high-end image forming apparatus having a large number of functions and a low-end image forming apparatus having a small number of functions are provided. If an image forming apparatus having all extended functions in a combined manner is employed to meet the requirement, although it is possible to provide the high-end image forming apparatus with ease, it is disadvantageous in the case of the low-end image forming apparatus because the cost of the image forming apparatus increases.
To improve the flexibility of extendability, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2006-325260 discloses a technology in which an image reading device having a scanner function and a storage function is added on an image forming apparatus having a plotter function, so that the image forming apparatus having a copy function is provided. In this case, data obtained by reading an image of an original is temporarily stored in a storage device by using the storage function whereby the copy function can be performed with high processing speed at low cost.
However, in the above technology, each of the image forming apparatus and the image reading device needs to include a central processing unit (CPU), a read-only memory (ROM), and a hard disk drive (HDD), which increases the costs of the image forming apparatus and the image reading device. When the image reading device is added on the image forming apparatus, the CPU included in the image reading device is configured to control the image forming apparatus. However, because software for controlling the image forming apparatus is usually large-scaled, the image reading device needs to include relatively large-scale ROM and random access memory (RAM) or a CPU with higher processing performance, which further increases the cost.
If a scanner function is added to a printer, the printer can function as a copier. However, because the configuration of the copier cannot be changed, it is difficult to provide an inexpensive copier without an HDD.